Originally a sedentary history and literature student, Andrew Turner developed chronic injuries that forced him to become physical in his early twenties. With no prior dance training, he was inexplicably accepted to Concordia University‘s Contemporary Dance Program in 2001. There he discovered a strong passion for both creation and performance. While still at school, he worked with the Caravan Stage Barge in 2003, touring the American East Coast and Missisissippi River by sailboat, performing in over twenty cities. He has since danced with Marie Béland, Paula de Vasconcelos, Milan Gervais, André Gingras, Pierre-Paul Savoie, Emmanule Jouthe, Hélène Langevin, Lucie Carmen Grégoire, Lisa Phinney Langley, Deborah Dunn, Sasha Kleinplatz, Marie-Julie Asselin and Hinda Essadiqi and. His work Duet For One Plus Digressions won the Prix OQWBJ at Rideau, and prizes from Studio 303 and L‘OQAJ during the Festival Vue Sur la Relève. Having been presented in New York, Los Angeles, Lille (Fr) and Charleroi (Be), Duet For One is presently touring 21 cities in Québec as part of the program Les Entrées en scene Loto-Québec. In May 2010, he was invited to do a three week research residency with the dancers of Montréal Danse, under the artistic mentorship of Kathy Casey. His latest work, Now I Got Worry, premiered in March 2010.

Coming to the field of dance as part of a search for personal authenticity and embodied awareness, Andrew Turner has cultivated a rich, grounded and visceral choreographic vocabulary. Urban-inflected, stemming from both his training in the martial arts and traditional dance forms, Andrew’s movement is raw and forceful, often pushing the limits of physicality, while remaining precise and nuanced in its expressivity.

Aligning this vigourous, rough-and-ready physicality with a sharply delivered analysis and critique, Andrew Turner explores the possibilities of performance with discernment and penetrating humour. Insisting on clarity and legibility from his propositions, Andrew has made a practice of speaking through the fourth wall, offering his audience explanations, commentary and possibilities of interpretation. The “performative moment”, the point at which staged work is transformed while being received by its public, is Andrew’s primary inspiration. The spectator, in his simple act of viewing, carries out a final and fundamental intervention on the creator’s material, and Andrew seeks to highlight the magic of this collaborative exchange at every moment.

Duet For One Plus Digressions is presented as work missing a vital part: exactly one half of its cast. The creator/performer asks for the spectator’s cooperation in visualising the role of his absent partner. Nothing is hidden: the performance is reduced to its building blocks and the creative process, laid bare. The danced material itself, never faltering in its athleticism, exuberance and complexity, provides a rigorous and visceral through-line to the work. However, an ambiguity develops as to how to receive the work. The performer is going to great pains: He erratically interrupts his music to explain; he conducts a PowerPoint presentation from his laptop; he is being thrown across the stage by hands that are not there. Is this planned, or are we witnessing an embarrassing programming error? Is this the work of an artist with a deconstructed self-awareness, consciously altering his relationship with the public – or that of a blithe creator absurdly presenting his work at 50% off, as is?

As the work progresses, it becomes clear that even seemingly spontaneous moments are fastidiously scripted, that the creator is exploring the nature of his public’s assumptions and expectations. However, while dealing irreverently with its structures, the artist reconfirms at every step his commitment to the profound power and symmetry of the medium. Our expectations are what allow us to believe, what transform work into more than the sum of its parts. With surprising and refreshing results, the question is posed – at every moment – “what is happening right now?”